Police close Rohith Vemula suicide case

The police's investigation suggests that Vemula's suicide was driven by the fear of his true caste being disclosed, as he identified himself as belonging to the Scheduled Caste category.

The Telangana Police filed a closure report, concluding its probe into the death of Rohith Vemula, a PhD scholar at the University of Hyderabad. Vemula had ended his life in January 2016.

The police's investigation suggests that Vemula's suicide was driven by the fear of his true caste being disclosed, as he identified himself as belonging to the Scheduled Caste category.

The report absolves former Hyderabad University Vice Chancellor Appa Rao and BJP leaders, including the then Secunderabad MP Bandaru Dattatreya, Union Minister Smriti Irani, former MLC N Ramachander Rao and ABVP leaders.

The police, in its report submitted to the court, mentioned that Rohith Vemula was aware that he did not belong to the Scheduled Caste (SC) community and that his mother got him an SC certificate.

This could be one of the constant fears, as the exposure of the same would put him to the loss of his academic degrees that he earned over the years and be compelled to face prosecution, the report said.

It added that Vemula had multiple issues plaguing him which could have driven him to die by suicide.

Police said that no evidence could be found to establish that the actions of the accused had driven Vemula to kill himself.